Don't Let Your Brand Stand Too Close To Your Competitors

When you’re trying to make your business a success, then it’s important to ensure that your brand is able to stand out, rather than blend in with your competitors. Sometimes, business owners will intentionally make their business look like a bigger competitor, in the hopes of siphoning off customers, but this rarely works.

More often, however, you will run into the same associations as some competitors when choosing the elements that make up your brand, which can make you look similar by pure circumstance. Here, we’re going to look at the ways you can make sure that this doesn’t happen.

Show off what makes you different from the rest. Image Credit: Shamblen Studios

Use your unique value proposition as your key

Your unique value proposition, or unique selling point, should be the foundation that your brand is built around. What is it that sets you apart from your competitors in a very real sense? Is it a type of service that you offer, a particular focus on how you do things differently, a unique quality to your products, or even an audience that you’re targeting that may otherwise be underserved? If you don’t have a good unique value proposition, you need to go back to the drawing board as it’s more than just a branding issue. You must have something unique to offer or there may be no room in the market for you.

Have an authentic story to tell

The story of how your business came to be, the passion that you have for your goals, and the problems that you’re trying to solve for your audience are all authentic roots at the base of the brand. Choosing elements of these to craft into a brand story can help you stand out as unique to your customers. Of course, you can incorporate that unique value proposition into your brand story, as well. You want to keep it relatively focused on just a few elements, however. A brand story that tries to say everything can end up sounding generic and focusless instead.

Choose a unique and original name

What’s in a name? An awful lot, it turns out. You need to take the time to make sure that you’re avoiding the most cliche name associations and that you’re not choosing any business names that are remotely similar to the names of your competitors. You don’t want customers mistaking you for another simply because you both thought of a similar fitting name for the industry, and business name research services can help you do that. Names should be simple, and memorable, but they don’t necessarily have to be thematically connected to the services or products you provide.

Avoid looking just like your competitor! Image Credit: Shamblen Studios

Research your competitor’s styles

Indeed, keeping up with that same idea, you should take the time to make sure that your business doesn’t look like anyone else’s either. Take your time to research the websites of your competitors, look at the color schemes they use, and the logos they have, and make sure that you’re not straying too close to them. You can think about what might be making them successful, but avoid looking like just another version of them in the visual elements that you use. Go your own way.

Dress up any stock assets you use

There’s nothing to say that you should avoid using stock assets to fill in the visual needs of your website or brand materials. However, you should ensure that you’re not simply using them as is, or else you could end up using exactly the same images as some of your competitors. There are ways that you can use styled stock photos to help them look not only different from how they are used by other brands but also to help them better fit your own brand style at the same time. It’s important to not only be unique but to be consistent.

Using mockups is a great way to easily customize your images to stand out from competitors. Image Credit: Shamblen Studios

Create a connection with your audience

Organic originality can grow out of your business if you’re willing to work for it. This happens by taking the time to grow a connection with your customers, be it through customer service, social media interactions, or adding a little personal touch to deliveries. If you can turn your customers into fans, then it’s the fanbase that can set you apart from the competition that lacks the same.

The key ingredients of a brand that stands out are originality, authenticity, and careful research and knowledge of the market. If you have three of these, then you’re a lot less likely to be mistaken for your competitors. The tips above can help you move in the right direction.